Charter Industries Extrusions acquired by Pittsburgh PE firm

KENTWOOD — Charter Industries Extrusions LLC, a supplier of carpentry components for the furniture and casegoods industries, has been acquired by a Pittsburgh, Pa.-based private equity firm.

In a deal announced last week, an affiliate of Incline Equity Partners said it invested in the Kentwood-based distributor of PVC and wood edgebanding, T-molding and veneer sheets.

According to a statement, Incline Equity Partners said it partnered with Charter Industries founder and CEO Peter Eardley and the management team in the deal.

Terms of the transaction were undisclosed. However, Charter Industries Holdings LLC, a Delaware-based affiliate of Incline Equity Partners, raised more than $63 million in equity “to fund the acquisition of the equity interests of a privately held company,” according to a filing with federal securities regulators.

“With Incline as our partner, we will be able to leverage their experience to assess new avenues for growth, particularly in acquisitions and new product additions,” Eardley said in a statement.

Charter Industries, located at 3900 S. Greenbrooke Drive SE, also has operations in Fresno, Calif., Albany, N.Y., Jacksonville, Fla., and Dallas, Texas, according to its website.

The company focuses on short-lead service and supplies “thousands” of customers in the furniture industry that serve clients in the education, retail, health care, hospitality, commercial, recreational vehicle and residential markets.

Incline Equity Partners specializes in acquisitions in the lower middle market for companies with $25 million to $300 million in enterprise value that operate in specialized light manufacturing, value-added distribution and business services. The deals often involve ownership transitions, buyouts, corporate divestitures and minority recapitalizations.

With more than $1.17 billion under management, the private equity firm originally spun off from PNC Financial Services Group Inc. in 2011, according to a report in the Pittsburgh Business Times.